White Honda Civic Type R (EK9) at night on a wet street (AI illustration based on a photograph)

AI illustration based on a photo by Ethan Llamas, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons. Details may differ from the real car.

Brands

Honda sports cars

Honda's sports cars are built around engines that rev, from the small S500 of 1963 to the NSX and the Type R cars. This page follows the lineage, VTEC, Honda's racing record and Mugen.

The sports cars, in order

Honda entered the car market in 1963 with the T360 truck, followed the same year by the S500, a compact sports car with a 500 cc twin-cam four (sources 1, 2). The CR-X, launched in 1983, and the Civic carried the sporting line through the 80s (sources 1, 3). The NSX arrived in 1990 (source 4). The Type R badge followed on the NSX in 1992, the Integra in 1995 and the Civic in 1997 (source 6), and the S2000 came in 1999 (source 4).

Civic Type RModel page coming
S2000Model page coming

What Honda is known for

VTEC, the variable valve timing and lift system that first went on sale in the Integra in April 1989 (source 5), and naturally aspirated engines with very high output for their size: the Integra's 1.6-litre B16A reached 100 PS per litre (source 1).

In motorsport

Formula One, first with its own cars: Honda entered in 1964, won its first Grand Prix in Mexico in 1965 and stopped after 1968 (source 2). Then as an engine supplier: Williams-Honda won the constructors' championship in 1986 and 1987, and McLaren-Honda drivers won the drivers' championship every year from 1988 to 1991 (sources 3, 4).

The tuning house

Mugen, founded in 1973 by Hirotoshi Honda, son of the company's founder, and Masao Kimura. It has never been owned by Honda but has worked alongside it (source 7).